Re:Birth - The Sane Taker
by TTHSK
Summary: This story is a different set of characters/events in the same setting as Re:Birth – The Lunatic Taker, rather than a fanfic using the manga's characters. I'm not really that big on the manga itself, but I like the setting a lot. Oh, and if anyone wants to talk about setting up some sort of roleplay based on the setting prod me. FF decided it's one big thing. Oh well.


Please note: I'm Australian, so the dates are dd/mm/yy format, not mm/dd/yy (the standard American format)

28/8/12

A few days ago, I was fixing the back veranda of the house I rent, when I slipped off and broke my head open on the bricks below.

As I was bleeding to death, the pair of rings I had found the day before started talking to me. They called themselves 'Aegis', and promised to bring me back to life in exchange for making a contract. They told me I would be granted eighteen units, amongst other things.

I agreed – there wasn't really another choice, as far as I could tell. I woke up on the ground, completely fine. It wasn't until I showered that evening that I saw eighteen tattooed on my chest, above a small symbol.

Freaked out quite thoroughly, I went straight to the internet, and (after a bit of searching for 'jewellery death revival units') found the 'Takernet'.

Now I'm absolutely sodding terrified.

28/8/12 (later)

I guess I should write down a summary of the whole 'taker' thing. I've had to piece it together from a variety of posts, spread all over Takernet. I even used Google to translate some of the foreign language posts – it seems that the largest amount of taker activity is in Japan. Anyway.

Takers are people who have had their souls eaten by angel-look-alike monsters. Of course, they remind people of modern depictions of angels rather than the various more bizarre critters that are actually in the bible. These creatures descend to the earth (in certain places, but usually cities) during the 'interval of time' to suck out peoples' souls. During the interval, all normal motion seems to be suspended except for that of the takers and angels (although it seems that air still moves? The physics is strange, but it's pointless to argue with reality. Maybe a field of motion restoration around takers and angels?) – which allows the angels to merrily suck out souls. The interval occurs at midnight (some how altering dependent on time zone ?! It may just be full moon and the middle point of the night) every full moon.

Those who have their souls devoured will, maybe (no-one seems to have bothered spending time to find out for sure by keeping track of a person whose soul is taken) find a magical device – in the form of jewellery – within a couple of days. Well, they will have the opportunity to find a device – it's possible to miss it. If you miss it, or if you don't pick it up or you get rid of it (often them, i.e. my rings) you'll eventually suicide. If you do pick them up, and keep them, you'll die fairly soon (it seems as if fate just twists to ensure that something'll go wrong and kill you) and a contract will be offered. You'll survive if you accept.

After accepting the contract, you become a taker. You're super human, to some extent. But, the 'units' the device gives you – which from then on are shown as a tattoo on your chest, apparently only visible to takers – gradually decrease (one per day) and, should they reach zero, you'll die.

To regain units, you need absorb them from an angel or from another taker. This is difficult to do in either case unless they're dead (and since takers and the angels heal fast, this requires decapitation or somewhat insane levels of physical damage). You'd hope that this meant people grouped up to fight the angels, and worked together. And you'd be wrong. Takers mostly kill each other. And there's other fun too – a taker can sense (within some range) other, lower 'level' takers.

Eh, back to the explaining. Takernet is very, very strange. Some how it adds you automatically when you become a taker, and knows your 'units' (more often called life or life points, despite what the devices offer) and your skills. It keeps track of it as it changes, and even notes when people die. My 'login' for the site was my name and birthday – again, the site knew that.

Beyond enhanced physical capacity, takers have skills and their magical devices. The skills vary widely, but are usually related to the class the taker has (mine is scout, apparently) – although new takers usually receive a strong healing ability as their first (with rare exceptions, if any). As takers gain life points, their 'level' increases, gaining them new skills, enhanced abilities… If it wasn't for the whole life on the line bit, it'd make a fine rpg setup. Sometimes there are even class changes.

The magical devices a taker has also vary significantly – in form, and in special ability (which some have, but not all). Mine is a sword and shield, and called 'Aegis'. The names seem to all be Greek (or Greek rooted words, anyway); no-one seems to question what this means and I personally have no idea (I'm more terrified of people popping up to kill me at the moment, to be honest).

The angels have monstrous combat forms they transform into when you attack them, and they vary in power with no way to tell how strong a particular angel is (exception being a couple of skills), so killing them a slim prospect. Which is why most takers kill each other. Well, actually, mostly they hunt down and kill newbie takers. Who they can sense. I'm probably safe out where I live, but if I want to hunt some of the angels (which are apparently appearing over the city, rather than out where I am, in about three days) I'm going to expose myself to an awful lot of danger.

So I've come up with a plan. I'm going to use myself as bait, and lead whichever psycho-murderous lunatic decides to hunt me into a trap, and kill them. Thankfully the sword and shield suits me (this seems to be a common occurrence) due to my experience with re-enactment. I'm going to spend the next couple of days practicing and thinking up a good trap, and then I'll go risk my life.

Hopefully I survive and get a good skill for angel hunting, and then I can do that instead.

31/8/12

Good luck to me, I guess.

1/9/12

It went well. I'm not dead. I killed two people, though.

The first hadn't been a taker very long – or maybe they were just weak. I think they just saw me moving around after time froze (I was staring at the angels – they are beautiful, at least when not angered). I was heading towards my 'trap' (really just an alleyway with good lines of sight) when I heard them running at me.

They came straight at me, two swords held out. But they had no idea how to use them, I could even tell from the distance. I summoned Aegis, blocked one sword, deflected the other, and stuck my sword up through their guts. I even wiggled the blade as they coughed.

I knew what to do from what I'd read online. I tore off their – his – shirt, and stuck my hand over the tattoo. I took his units (the feeling of that power entering me was very unusual) and watched him melt away in front of me. Thirty-two units. He was probably almost new with so little… I would have preferred he had talked to me. We could have worked together instead of fighting, maybe. The worst bit is, I've completely forgotten his face. Short black hair, slightly short - but for the life of me I can't remember his face.

Probably for the best.

The second… He clapped behind me after I had killed the first, as flesh melted away to nothing.

"Well done," he said, stepping towards me from the very alley I had been heading towards. "But I'm afraid you're now a little fish big enough for a shark like me to snap up."

I unsummoned Aegis as he advanced slowly, grinning. "I don't want to fight," I said, letting my hands drop to my sides.

"You don't? Even better," he said. His hair was brown, and he was of average height. He was very average, actually, upon reflection. Almost unnoticeable.

I got the meaning of what he said, of course. "I have money!" I said, stepping backwards and reaching into my jacket.

"Now why would I wan-" he began. As he spoke, I was really pulling my pistol from my inside pocket, for all that it looked like I was going for my wallet. I shot him twice before he could do anything; then he seemed to flit right up to me almost instantly.

His weapons were being summoned as I shot him three more times at close range, then a few more times in the head after he fell over. I never actually saw his weapon. The noise I made was very, very loud; but I doubted that there were too many other takers nearby – otherwise they'd probably have fought amongst themselves instead of some coming for me.

I stashed my pistol back into my jacket, and took his units. This guy had one hundred and seventy. In one night, I went from seven to two hundred and nine. And two people died for them.

I returned the pistol to the friend I borrowed it off. He was kind enough to lend it to me, after I showed him Aegis. I'm probably going to lie to him, and say that I didn't have to use it.

I'll add to this later with whatever new information I learn about being a scout – Takernet says that my beginner healing ability has been replaced with a low level scout one. I couldn't find any information on what it does, so I'm just going to experiment and find out for myself.

6/9/12

I'm feeling guilty about killing two people. Seeing their bodies melt away makes it all a little unreal, but, they were alive. I don't want to ever do it again, if I can avoid it.

I think I've figured out what my ability does. I wasted about twenty units on it, too. I can focus on a single being, and then get a feeling for if they have more or less units than me. It doesn't work on normal people (I can feel the ability activating, then nothing) but – kind of amazingly – I don't think it has a range limit, so long as I can picture someone. I've been sizing up the people on Takernet who were crazy enough to post photos.

I think a couple are dead, and all those who did are stronger than me – far stronger. But I know how my ability works now. I think it will work on the angels, too – if I can find some people to team up with, we can hunt down and take on the weak ones. Which means if I find someone who isn't crazy, I'm all set. Or someones, preferably.

There aren't many scouts – apparently most people who start as a scout quickly end up as a different class. It makes sense considering what I've figured out about classes – they are linked to who you are, what you are in a sense. Maybe, more accurately, what your goals are, how you approach things – particularly being a taker. Scouts seek information; and since after finding out a little most would move on to trying to survive or fight (or just wind up dead, curiosity killing cats and all).

I'm not going to stop looking for information. Especially since my ability is incredibly useful. Sure, it's useless in combat, but the trouble with killing angels, the reason people kill each other, is because an angel of unimaginable power could be the next one you fight, at any time.

Except, with me around, no one would have to worry about that.

14/9/12

There's about two weeks until the next interval of time. I've been training hard to get better with my weapon (I hadn't been attending re-enactment regularly; now I'm getting extra lessons on sword fighting from the president of the group). It's stronger now, too. For that matter, so am I.

I still feel bad about the people I killed, but… They attacked me. If they hadn't, I have no idea how I would feel. It'd be bad, though. Really bad. As it stands, it really just makes me think of all the people – takers, I guess – who die each day. Of the people whose souls I saw devoured in the last interval, and how some will become takers, and how most will die. Or even all.

I've been trying to find allies on Takernet. I figured out a way to link others to my details, but thankfully I realised that some takers can see more information than I can. I suspect they might be able to access someone's home address, current location… If it's possible, no one has said so. There are hints that general location is possible, however. Which is bad news. So plan a – prove that I'm a weak, and new, scout has gone out the window.

Plan b hasn't worked either. I've been keeping an eye out for other takers. Or, really, a 'feel' out. I could, faintly, tell that the two takers I killed were takers and supposedly I should be better able to sense other takers now. But I haven't run into any. This isn't a surprise; I don't venture into the centre of the city much – heck, I've been avoiding it – and I've read that the angels mostly appear where there are many potential victims. Like a city's cbd, for example.

Plan c has gotten nowhere, but shows a little promise. I made a post about setting up a group to hunt angels here in Melbourne. I've gotten into contact with two people. One refused to send me a photo to focus on, the other sent me someone who is already dead (that's a weird thing about my ability, actually – anybody who is dead makes me feel this strange, gnawing emptiness, even if they weren't a taker when alive). So, one of them is definitely bad news. The other, I have no idea. But they are takers, they are local, and I'm in contact with them.

So that's a step in the right direction, at least. I think I'm justified in being paranoid when my life is on the line.

17/9/12

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The other person I was in contact with was a newbie like me. From the same in-between period, even. She died yesterday because she ran out of units. She told me she got into a fight with an angel during the interval, but it was too tough for her, and she ran. It seems she got away because someone else attacked it, and died.

It doesn't make me happy to learn that two people I could have fought beside are dead.

The other person I'm in contact with sent me a real photo this time – hell, he sent me his actual identity. He's strong. Apparently he's a psychopath – probably not just the class. He's swapped from trying to get me to meet him, to taunting me about my hopes instead. I think he's delighted by what I'm trying to do, since it means stronger victims for him. More units, more power. He says he has killed hundreds of other takers, but never an angel.

I haven't stopped talking to him – despite the risk of accidentally revealing where I am – because it's good to have someone to talk to who's a taker. Hell, I think he's happy to have someone to talk to about all this shit. He seemed concerned when he was asking me if I was the guy he killed two days ago.

There have been a couple of posts, but no-one has opened up email contact with me. I've been reading archives of posts – people (understandably) post an awful lot on Takernet. Groups have been assembled – sometimes successfully – before, and I think some may even still exist.

There are also, of course, groups of killers that hunt down newbies. There are none active in Melbourne, but I may have given Daniel (that's his name, dunno why I didn't bother mentioning it, but this is a goddamn diary, hah) the idea. I hope not.

24/9/12

Daniel and I almost met face to face today. I actually think he might have sensed me, but left me alone.

Someone new, and in Melbourne, posted on Takernet late last night. They were trying to find other people to work together with; they'd missed my thread. I spotted the thread this morning after they read mine and posted a picture directly from their Facebook page onto Takernet.

Someone found and posted their home address about half an hour later. I made it there in time to see Daniel leaving, and the poor idiot's corpse melting in the front doorway.

I ran. I guess I got away, or else I'd be dead right now.

24/9/12 (later)

I know why Daniel didn't attack me. I was spotted, and stalked, by someone a lot stronger than me, but a fair bit weaker than him. He sensed both of us, and went after the fatter target.

He ambushed them, and lost track of me. I'm not sure if he's kidding or not when he says he's my guardian angel.

30/9/12

My progress has been depressing. I know of three people who are dead, that I never got to meet, that I could have worked with. The one person I'm in contact with is a murderous lunatic, who is responsible for the death of one of the three (and, he claims, countless others). The only positive is that he's an indiscriminate killer, as long as they're weaker. And, I guess, that he's taken a shine to me. Which is a horrible thing to know (or even think, if he's just fucking with me).

I also realised that the guy with thirty units? I could've left him alive, and tried to convince him to work with me after he recovered. It would've been risky, really risky, but. It would've been the better choice, morally. Not a sensible one at all, though. I'm glad I didn't think of it at the time, as horrible as that sounds.

The plan for tonight is simple; try and find an angel that feels weaker than me, then try and find someone to join me in taking it on. It shouldn't be too hard to find a weak angel, but interacting with anyone carries a huge risk.

1/10/12

I messed up my timing on getting into the city, and ended up stuck on a tram a little bit outside the cbd. I think it was for the best, though. There were a few angels around, and I found a good target pretty quickly (it seems that most angels are fairly weak, and few strong). I didn't see – or sense – any other takers, so about fifteen minutes into the interval I took it on.

They're very, very tough; especially considering how many units they have. The one I killed had twenty-three, yet it was about three metres tall after I angered it (they all look the same until you do). It was terrible at fighting, though. It didn't seem to be able to cope with my ability to block its blows and strike when I needed to.

The other angel I saw in combat form I saw walking in the cbd, destroying buildings. It had to have been at least thirty stories tall. I'd hate to be the one who angered it. I got a feel for its power; it was overwhelming. Stronger than Daniel. Stronger than the strongest of the psychopaths who've posted pictures of themselves on Takernet. I don't think having no idea how to fight would slow it or help someone who angered it in the slightest. Seeing the damage it did suddenly become undone at the end of the interval was very strange.

I found and killed another really weak angel before the interval ended, and I got another twenty-nine units. I took it by surprise as it was eating someone's soul. They… They get really into it, if you catch my meaning. It's kind of grotesque, considering what they are doing.

Time for me to spend another month practicing, and trying to find allies. I came up with an idea I wish I'd thought of before this morning. I can check the wallets of people who have their souls taken, and find them. I'd just need to be careful to not weird people out when I initiate contact (maybe a few days before the interval, when everyone who's still alive has found their death accessory). Getting into contact immediately, telling them to keep an eye out for the item would be better, but… I honestly don't think anyone would listen, and weirding out the wrong person could land me in a lot of trouble.

9/10/12

I sensed another taker today. Briefly, and I couldn't see them so I have no idea if they're weaker or stronger than I am. They were near the train line I was travelling down, though.

It's better to start with talk about hope. Daniel sent me an image of another taker yesterday. He was still alive, and seemed new (he was a lot weaker than I am). Daniel taunted me about how he was going to kill him. Today, the taker was dead.

I'm honestly hoping I get a chance to kill that arsehole.

12/10/12

I think I might just stick to areas near the cbd when I hunt angels. From the posts about Melbourne, I've figured out that on top of Daniel, there are a pair of psychopaths that hunt through the cbd for takers that are trying to take down angels. They don't go after new takers very often, since they're not 'ripe enough'. Which is why I'm still alive.

It's hard to figure out, since they gloat rarely and succinctly. Things like, 'Gotcha' and 'I wanted that one' randomly in threads. I've also learnt that Daniel doesn't bother with the intervals, he just gets a little extra sleep.

18/10/12

I've gotten into contact with someone who really is a newbie, finally. I'm not sure if they'll really be any use, though. She's young – seventeen – and was apparently out late with a couple of friends when the last interval hit. One of them has committed suicide; the other seems fine (and has been told to keep an eye out for jewellery).

We've spoken over a webcam, so I'm fairly certain that this isn't Daniel fucking with me again. I'm going to meet her tomorrow. She doesn't remember the name of her accessory, but it takes the form of an anklet (apparently it told her so, she had been wearing it as a bracelet beforehand) and has the form of a boar spear (a short spear with a cross-guard) when active.

19/10/12

Today was almost a very bad day. But I'm really, really happy for once. I averted a pretty awful tragedy.

I met with the girl today in a park near her house. She's nowhere near as paranoid as I am about people. Her name is Hannah, and she's scared by the idea of fighting the angels. I don't think it even occurred to her that she could fight people instead until she read about it. She's a little too innocent, to be honest. It's a little weird considering she was out on town with a fake id.

While we were in the park, I sensed another taker. I told Hannah, and we both summoned our weapons. The park was empty at the time of day we were there anyway, so revealing them wasn't an issue. I felt the other taker leave after I looked, and pointed, in the direction they were; I had spooked them.

I told Hannah that someone was probably after her. We came up with a plan; I would wait near her house, keeping an eye out, and Hannah would act as bait. Whoever it was, they had been unable to sense me, which meant they were likely weaker than I. It was a little bit of a risk, however; one of the traits of the scout class is improved sensing abilities in general, as well as specialised informative abilities (I still have almost no information on any of them, however).

I pretended to go off my own way, and drove around to her house, parking on the street opposite. It wasn't long before the taker showed up – it was her other friend. She'd shown me a picture, but I had gotten nothing before.

I followed her inside, but kept my distance. "Hey Elle," came Hannah's voice. "I'm kind of busy right now, so, um, can you leave maybe?"

"I'd already found my accessory when you told me about them, Hannah," said Elle. "We can't fight the angels, they're too strong. So it's me or you. And I choose me, okay?"

"Elle, wait!" yelled Hannah. It was about at this point that Elle turned around, and I bashed her over the head with my shield.

She dropped her weapon – some kind of strange scythe – and stumbled back into the wall.

"Elle!" Hannah yelled, rushing to her friend.

"Did you link her to Takernet but not my thread?" I asked.

Elle was mumbling during this, it was a bit incoherent, but it was something like, "I don't want to die, I have to live, I have to kill, please." I think 'forgive me' was in there somewhere, too.

Elle's weapon unsummoned as Hannah and I helped her to a couch. She was pretty hysterical, but she didn't really seem like a threat anymore. "I'll go lock up my car and check your wall," I said. "Give you some time to calm her down."

Elle was still freaking out when I returned, but she seemed sorry more than anything, which was an improvement. After Hannah forgave her repeatedly (to be honest, I'm not sure Hannah really has forgiven her; Elle was seriously ready to murder her and I don't think she took that well) Elle calmed down. Hannah explained who I was, and what the plan was, and that seemed to give Elle hope. She also went back to saying sorry, and how she was such an idiot, and so on.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure she's feeling guilty for convincing herself that the best way to live was to kill a friend. I know I'd be kicking myself.

Hannah and I had a little chat alone as I left. "I can't believe she was going to kill me!" she said.

"I can," I replied. "People can get very strange when they're desperate about something. For example, avoiding death."

"Would you do that? Kill someone?" she asked.

"You know I already have," I replied. "But I don't think I could kill someone who didn't attack me first, or really, truly deserved it. I certainly couldn't kill a friend, especially not just because they seemed like an easy target."

I'm kind of worried about what's going on in her head, but she seems like a sensible girl. I think she'll be fine, and simply work through her issues like an ordinary person would. The trouble with that is, you can tell people to get over something, but it doesn't mean they ever will… Can I write sigh in a diary? I guess I can do whatever. Sigh. I probably shouldn't start worrying over mental states yet, but I can't help it.

22/10/12

I've managed to convince both of the girls to come along to the re-enactment training. I'm considering explaining to the leader of the group what's going on. It wouldn't be too hard to convince him, considering that I can summon a sword and shield out of nowhere. And it would give a far better reason for teaching someone to use a scythe as a weapon, and to defend against something like the angels.

We mocked up a scythe that's more or less in the shape of Elle's strange one (honestly, most of the weapons I've seen so far have been fairly normal, but hers is weird), and a boar spear for Hannah. They've picked up some of the basics, although I suspect a boar spear is not a very good weapon to fight an angel with – it's not long enough to hold the angel at bay, and it's nor particularly good for cutting or stabbing them.

Still, with three of us, and my scouting ability, hopefully we can kill off a bunch of angels quickly. If we manage to get stronger, find more people… I'm not really sure, actually. There are rumours of takers with the ability to redistribute units; if we could find someone like that we'd be set.

There's something else I'm thankful for; Elle and Hannah are keeping a low profile as much as they can to avoid being sensed by other takers. I'm still worried that someone will find them, but it's good that they understand the danger. It'd be weirder if they didn't, to be honest.

25/10/12

Daniel's been severely weakened. From what he has said, he got into a fight with one of the major psychopaths. He won; but as they'd almost killed each other repeatedly during the fighting, he barely scraped any units from them. As far as I can tell, he's now only a couple of times stronger than I am. But he's still a psychopath, and I suspect he'd eliminate me instantly if we ever fought.

28/10/12

Today was a sad day. I've been trying to identify other Melbourne takers, and try to get a feel of how many dangerous crazies are about, how many angel killers, how many newish takers (and how many show up between each interval). I've managed to identify a few (and Daniel has been helpful as far as figuring out the stronger, older ones goes, I have to admit) but, well. I've also managed to get a good idea of how many new takers appear in Melbourne between each interval.

Roughly thirty. About a fifth simply die from running out of units, none the wiser. Most of the rest die before or during the first interval, after being hunted down or when trying to fight an angel. About one in ten survive, and only one in four of those survives because they killed an angel. The vast majority die after being hunted down, as well.

There seems to be two levels of survivors. Those around half my strength to double it, who occasionally fight each other and mostly hunt down the new; and those like Daniel and the two (now one) who hunt the cbd. As far as I can tell, there were only four of them, and there's about twenty-five of the second tier (who die fairly regularly, as they often end up needing to fight an angel or each other if they aren't able to find anyone to murder for a couple of months).

It's a sad day, though, because I've found traces of five different new takers who died in the past couple of months. Tragedies avoided: one out of countless.

29/10/12

It's a full moon today. Tonight, I'm taking two girls angel hunting. I explained what was going on to the leader of the re-enactment group tonight. He agreed to help, and also decided to stay inside at midnight on every day with a full moon. It's the wise approach, honestly.

30/10/12

Last night went really well. First, we picked off a couple of weakling angels – Hannah and Elle did well, avoiding injury. After they took the units of one each, we checked their abilities. Hannah's is a shield ability that slows blows coming at her to a stop, although at a relatively high cost – about as many as it would take to heal being bludgeoned by an equal amount of force. Which is good for countering blade swings, and angels (avoiding wounds from angels is essential; I think I have forgotten to write it down, but wounds from them do not heal properly through expense of units. A mortal wound will leave you dying, units disappearing one by one. Survival is possible, but far less likely).

Elle's ability is an attack ability. At will, she can spin in a circle almost instantly. With her scythe held out right, she can tear anything close to her to shreds (at a cost of one unit per spin, we found).

This lead us to adopt an interesting tactic, which we used to take down a couple more weak angels, and then one that was stronger (one hundred units; quite tough, and it stood at about six metres tall). Hannah throws her spear, gaining the angel's attention. I charge at it, distracting it, with Hannah charging behind me. As the angel rushes us to engage, Elle gets in behind it and shreds it. The weaker angels were torn to pieces instantly.

The larger angel roared and engaged Elle (who had made herself dizzy after doing too many spins). Thankfully Hannah and I had gotten close enough to engage as well, and I polished the angel of with a couple of slashes. It was almost dead anyway, luckily. Otherwise, well, Elle might be dead. I took the units from that angel; and we all made our ways home with enough units to keep us alive until the next full moon.

My pessimism is telling me to get ready for something horrible to happen.

31/10/12

I got a phone call this morning from a taker. He saw us fighting during the last interval, and followed Hannah and Elle as they were heading home. He tried to attack Elle in the street as she walked home; but she sensed him and challenged him.

He told her that he had to kill her, or someone, or else he wouldn't survive the month. She gave him my number, and told him to ring me. Also to stop following her, or she'd kill him, apparently. So he didn't. He rang me, and I talked to Elle about it (apparently she forgot to tell me somehow).

He doesn't have enough units to last until the next interval of time. Or even the whole week. I asked him why he didn't just approach us, and he said he was too afraid. He was watching from quite far away too; if he'd been closer, I would've sensed him. Then I could have helped him. As it is, I have no idea what I'm going to do. Or if there even is anything I can do.

2/11/12

I still don't know what to do about that guy. Fred, short for Frederic, is his name. He has five units left.

I've got some other stuff to babble about, though. Hannah's class is 'defence', and Elle's 'berserker'. I kind of suspect that Hannah's class name is 'defence' because the system doesn't have a decent role analogue to name her as. Possibly. Takernet is really, really strange. I've been trying on and off to figure out who runs it, how it detects every taker worldwide. I still have absolutely no idea. That it's hiding behind a proxy and some onion networking nonsense is as far as I've managed to get.

The Fred situation is really getting to me, to be honest. But there's nothing I can do, except hunt one of the murderous lunatic types. And that opens up a can of worms; can I really look at myself as better than them if I hunt them down to kill?

And of course, the alternative is letting someone die. Although, I think he's going to die doing something desperate.

5/11/12

Something desperate, alright. Fred has a picture of Elle, and he knows she's called Elle. He has threatened to post it up on Takernet (which I told him about; apparently he found out about the unit stuff from some other site) if we don't help him.

I've been talking to Elle and Hannah about it. We've agreed to do something pretty horrible. Tomorrow, we're going to meet up with him tomorrow to 'try and see if he can only take a couple of units if we cut off his hand or something'. It's a good idea, except it's been tried. It doesn't work. After the units start transferring, the taker (or angel) dies. Interrupting the transfer means the units go to waste; you can't even stick your hand there instead to take some 'leftovers' or something.

We're going to tie him up instead, and keep watch over him until midnight, when his last unit will tick away. I'm not really sure if my conscience can take this, but I'm more worried about the girls.

The way I look at it, we're being as good as we possibly can without dying. And we're only crossing the line with Fred because he crossed it by blackmailing us.

I can't stop thinking about the bloody slippery slope thing. At least I know myself well enough to know I'm probably just going to overcompensate in the other direction. It doesn't make me feel any better, though.

7/11/12

Fred is dead. We tied him up, gagged him, and left him alone most of the day. We spent the last ten minutes with him. I said sorry. I feel awful, and I damn well should've done it without the girls. Without Hannah, at least. It's one of those things that you just want to say 'never again' and mean it.

But I'll do it again if I need to. Fuck.

12/11/12

With Hannah and Elle posting on Takernet, and the fact that I've been around a while now, the thread has become less full of 'obviously a trap' and now has a lot more 'please come talk to me' stuff from locals.

Some refused to send photos, or sent the dead or non-takers. A few sent themselves, and obviously weren't newbies when I used my ability on them. It's worrying that so many are ready to try to trick us; I haven't been coy explaining our angel killing. Nor the fact that there's three of us. And none of them are really particularly strong, at least those that sent real photos.

I guess they're just desperate, and see us as weak. It's weird. I think that's an important thing – we need to not be desperate, so we can avoid having to do things we regret.

16/11/12

My paranoia's in overdrive, because in the next few days the cleverer fakes are going to start contacting me. I've thankfully pegged the accounts of most of those in Melbourne, and I've downloaded an archive of all posts I can search through to identify others. I only need to worry about the lurkers.

Most people become takers a couple of weeks after the interval of time, and get around ten to twenty units. Enough to last them until the next interval, always. So the cleverer fakes will start trying to contact me soon.

Unit wise, I'm sitting on two hundred and twenty units at the moment, and Hannah and Elle have about forty each left. We've decided on going after 'medium' angels, although we'll engage a lot closer so we don't have to panic if Elle gets herself dizzy again. We've held off having her practice her spinning; she can't really spare the units yet.

The oddest thing so far is that neither Elle nor Hannah has been attacked. I suspect we've gotten lucky and there are no other takers out where they live. Myself, I've sensed a couple of takers in passing, but both were weaker than me and fairly distant. Too far to have sensed me back. Being a scout is a big advantage in that regard, I think.

19/11/12

I spoke too soon. Elle and Hannah were attacked – while together – by someone. He tried to get the drop on Hannah, which resulted in her barrier stopping his attack before it hit her.

Then Elle chopped him up into little pieces in a flash. Pieces too small to extract units from; he lost any he had left and melted immediately. I have no idea how many units he had, but it was enough that he thought he could take both of them. He was wrong, I guess.

Both Elle and Hannah are down a few units, but not enough that it's a problem. After the next interval, though, we need to all be up over a hundred. I really don't want to lose either of them because they lost one too many units in a pointless fight. It'd be just as bad as losing them in a pointless fight, but slower. More painful. Man, guilt's a fucking bitch.

23/11/12

We're five days out from the interval, and I'm finally in contact with someone who seems to legitimately be new. There are maybe four maybes I'm working on, and I'm trying to come up with a plan for that (only one sent me a photo, but they won't use a webcam and are refusing to send additional photos; honestly, they're the most suss of the lot).

We're going to meet up with him tomorrow, and he'll join us on our hunt. The other four I'm going to get to all come somewhere at once on the day of the interval, so if anyone is bad news we can deal with them.

Oh, interestingly, Hannah's class changed to Knight. I think whoever, or whatever, is behind the website is improving the non-Japanese translations. I think I'm the only person who cares, too.

24/11/12

Mitch is really new, which is good. We met up with him earlier in a café. We had a chat, planned out the interval, I talked about my plans (and how much we need someone who can redistribute units). It feels weird dragging Elle and Hannah along to this sort of thing; especially since they're more or less acting as body guards. I haven't stopped being paranoid yet.

Anyway, Mitch's weapon is a bastard sword. I invited him along to training, but he lives a busy life and won't be able to free up evenings (or any other time) for at least a week. He is going to try and free up a couple of nights a week, though, which is good. Otherwise I'd be wondering about how serious he finds the whole 'life and death' thing.

Hannah and Elle are improving steadily; the whole being kind of superhuman thing is helping them a lot, though. When there's more of us, we can train for real, against each other. As it stands, they have to take turns fighting me or outclassing our teacher because they're simply far faster. Hannah seems to understand that, but I think it's going to Elle's head a little. Or at least it does, until she takes me on.

27/11/12

I've got all four of the iffy people meeting us at different corners of the same park, early in the day and in public. It's sort of an unspoken rule with takers that nothing happens in public; mostly it's just because no one wants the police breathing down their necks. Desire to continue living a normal life, and all that.

Hannah, Elle, Mitch and I will meet up and head there around midday tomorrow, then – if everything goes well – we'll hunt angels in the evening. As paranoid as I am, my feelings of hope are in overdrive right now.

29/11/12

Shit hit the fan really, really hard. The weirdest bit is that Mitch, Elle, Hannah and I are all alive. We even kept one of the newbies alive. And the only dangerous psychopath left in Melbourne is Daniel; although I'm sure one of the lesser killers will fill the void soon enough.

As we neared the park, I started picking up on the newbies. Four takers, definitely weaker than me. This was a massive surprise; I'd expected at least one would be someone trying to get the drop on us. But none of them were. We went to the centre of the park, and I texted all four to come meet us.

Then one of them died. I'm an idiot, so I didn't choose a park where you could see all four corners from the centre. Or even any of the corners. "Fuck!" I yelled, "One of them just died."

Everyone – except me (I was a little too shocked) – summoned their weapons immediately. "Which one?" asked Elle, looking around.

Hannah said, "Oh my god." Mitch kept quiet.

"That one," I said, pointing. After a few tense seconds, I felt a second die as they walked inwards from an adjacent corner. "Fuck! Another! Whoever it is, they're working their way around the square. We have to cut them off!"

I started running towards the likely third victim (who had just come into sight); thankfully, everyone else followed me. I summoned Aegis, and as I yelled "Watch out!" another taker flashed up, and cut them in half. (It was a middle-aged woman; in business attire. She never actually told me her name)

This was when I realised the attacker was a psychopath. They were using two abilities at once: some sort of hiding ability, so they were not possible to sense (at all); and the fairly common speed ability that allows rapid movement.

The psychopath was a man; fairly burly and a little under average height. He held a battle axe in one hand (covered in the blood of the woman he'd just cut in half) and he grinned when he looked at us.

He used his ability to zip up to us, and I blocked his blow. Elle got both of his arms with a single spin. I'm pretty sure that shocked him more than my block, although I think both surprised him.

He zipped backwards immediately (causing Elle to miss with a second spin) and said, "You fuckers! I'll be back with new arms and fucking kill you all!" Then he took off. It was quite a relief, I thought he was going to grow new arms right there. Some sort of vastly over the top regeneration wouldn't be too much of a surprise as a taker ability.

We tried to save the woman, but she melted away. She didn't have enough units to stick her halves back together by the time we got to her (although her body made a good try). While we were trying to help her, the fourth of those who had come to meet us came up, and tried to help. He's most of the way through a medical degree, apparently. His name is Abhi.

We investigated what went on with the first victim; it looked like the psychopath had taken a new taker captive to trick us. We got very, very lucky with Elle's spin; otherwise the bastard would have easily killed us all.

Now, the reason I know the psychopath is dead is because Daniel sent me a picture of the guy, headless. His shirt had been torn off, and his tattoo read two thousand, three hundred and forty-one units. His arms were half regenerated. The text with the message simply read, "Thanks."

I hope, so very much, that Daniel just happened to run into him as he made his way back to safety. It's fairly likely that Daniel would have stalked a juicy target like that, I hope. But, thanks to us, Daniel's back in action.

We hung around together for the rest of the day. Mitch is pretty funny; his account of cunningly moving his schedule around like a master so he could afford the entire day was a hoot. It was all tinged with sadness, though. Three more deaths. Ugh. I guess not much for me, though. I mean, it could have – was so much more likely to have – gone an awful lot worse than it did.

Anyway, Abhi's weapon is a quarter staff with a couple of spikes at the end. Hannah and I gave him a few pointers throughout the afternoon. His class is 'Wanderer'. They're supposed to get a few interesting abilities – one is a long distance teleport (pretty different to the speedy zip ability), and another reduces life consumption to one every two days. While I remember, Mitch has the rather straightforwardly named 'Warrior' class. Which apparently used to be called 'Fighter' (trivial information, I guess).

The angel hunting went very well. I picked a bunch of middle range targets (fifty to ninety units), Abhi and Hannah got their attention, Hannah and I got in front of their charges, and Elle and Mitch polished them off. We even (admittedly accidentally) took on a pair of weaker angels at once, and angered a few while they were in the air.

Most of our time was spent finding suitable targets, even though we had headed into the cbd. Knowing that Daniel just sleeps through the intervals, and that both the 'big two' psychopaths who made it dangerous were gone, meant we had the freedom to hunt their without much risk.

It'll be more dangerous when the mid-level killers figure out that both the major psychopaths are goners, but we should be able to take them on too. And we have a month to practice, and hopefully get into contact with more takers.

Kind of weird when your hopes are dashed horribly, but things turn out well anyway. Ugh, awful thing to say when people died, but it's true. Their deaths didn't mean nothing to us, even if the family they leave behind will be mystified. Not that anyone remembers dead takers, except other takers. It's pretty awful, really.

30/11/12

We had a couple of class changes after the 28th. Elle's class has swapped to 'Reaper' (apparently limited to those with a scythe weapon) and mine to 'Sage'. Elle still has her spin ability, but mine has changed to a stronger ability that allows me to fully identify my opponents. With takers, I can tell their class, ability (I suspect I might not understand what it does all the time, though) and number of units (exactly). With angels I don't know yet, but I suspect it will work similarly. Hopefully, anyway.

I can use the ability with or without using units; using units makes the identification (a lot) quicker. Unfortunately, I need to see whoever it is in motion (or in a bunch of photos) even with the use of units to identify them; and I suspect it might be far easier to trick (I can't tell if people are dead anymore, for one). We could use another scout, to be honest, although precise understanding of opponent capabilities will be very helpful.

Abhi and Mitch both gained abilities as well; Abhi has the lesser unit use ability and Mitch an empowered attack ability (it seems to be some kind of temporary muscle boost). Things are looking pretty good at the moment. I probably shouldn't tempt fate by saying things like that, though. Heh.

2/12/12

Last night was interesting.

We all have each other's numbers in case of an emergency; Mitch sent a message saying that he sensed a trio of takers outside his house at about eight p.m. last night. Immediate panic mode; the rest of us (bar Hannah, who was in the midst of something she couldn't just disappear from) rushed there. I picked up Elle on the way (she caught a train a few stations, then I drove us the rest of the way). Abhi has a car too, so we got there pretty fast.

Mitch kept us updated; they seemed to be waiting for something. He reckoned they were waiting for him to go to sleep and hadn't realised that he could sense them. Once we got nearby (in front of the house behind his, whose owners are on vacation) he fled into his backyard as we rushed forward to get to him. Elle and I ran along the fence, Abhi alongside on the ground. The other takers vaulted over Mitch's house (I could sense them at this point), and we all ran into each other at the back end of his property.

There were three of them; a man and two women. I immediately started using my ability on them, as the bloke said, "So, I guess you're the group with that scout then?"

"Yeah, we are," said Mitch, menacingly. "So sod off."

"I think we might take our chances with you weaklings," said the bloke in reply.

I'd finished identifying them all by this point. The bloke was a rogue with four hundred and forty-six units (not much more than I) and a specialised fast movement ability that allowed him to zip behind someone (which is actually probably worse than the normal version, although it prevents hits in transit). His weapon was a scimitar.

The two women had exactly one hundred and twenty units each. One was another rogue with a stealth ability (which she hadn't been using) and a crossbow as her weapon. The other was of the 'Princess' class, with the redistribution ability. I.e. exactly what I've been hoping to find someone with.

"You should know that I've changed class, and know your capabilities exactly," I said. "For example, you have four hundred and forty-six units, use a scimitar, and have a backstab ability. She has a crossbow and a stealth ability. And her, she is exactly what I've been hoping to find."

The two rogues looked taken aback; although the princess looked serene. It's a very weird class, and it does weird things to people (there is a male equivalent, although it's regent instead of prince). "I don't know what kind of deal you were intending to frighten us into, but I think we should work together. It's obvious you've been killing people – probably lots of people – but you can stop."

"And risk our lives fighting the angels? You can get fucked, mate," said the bloke. "You're right that we can't beat you, though. Not when you're all together." He grinned.

"I'm having a hard time believing that you just said that, since it means we can't let you go and possibly think over our offer," I said.

Elle sniggered, and said, "What he means is we kinda have to kill you because you're a threat."

"Do we?" asked Abhi.

"Yeah," said Mitch, "They'll definitely be back to pick me off later otherwise."

"Uh, a truce then. A truce so we can think it over?" said the bloke in a rush.

Abhi, Elle, Mitch and I had one of those glance conversations that people have occasionally, with the shrugs. "Alright," I said. "Don't kill anyone else if you're going to work with us, though."

The dude looked a little aggravated at what I said. "Fine, you arsehole. Give us a contact number and let us go," he said.

I did so, and they left. Mitch stayed over at my place anyway, just in case.

5/12/12

I haven't had a phone call yet. I'm wondering whether I should have crossed the line again to secure the princess. If things were more desperate, maybe, but we've been doing well enough that we can afford to wait. Which leaves me stuck worrying that we've dashed this opportunity and may never have another. Ah well.

Mitch has been left alone, although he's planning to move (he was going to anyway, but he's brought forward when). I'm kind of worried that he'll just disappear, but that could honestly happen to any of us.

Training's going well; Mitch has managed to mess with his schedule so he can show up a bit now. Abhi hasn't had any problem finding time (although he's lamented the loss of much of the little time he had to socialise when not studying). I think he's, uh, enjoying being around Hannah and Elle though.

My identification skills is quite interesting. From looking at photos, I can (somehow) tell whether someone was a taker at the time of the photo, and vaguely how strong they were if so. Which is really weird; I'm picking up on some sort of physical characteristic in the photo (it's harder, and more vague, with a shitty or edited photo).

In person, it takes about two or three minutes to pin down someone exactly if I don't use a unit up. I need about forty photos to get a fairly good idea, although if they're not from the same time (i.e. the same day) I won't be able to tell the number of units someone has, or other details. Using units cuts it down to two or three photos (with the same caveats, sadly) or about eight seconds.

The useful part of all of this is, given a couple of photos of someone, I can manage to (without units) tell if they're a taker. They have to be different photos, but even two shots of the same person the tiniest amount of time apart works. I can also identify takers at a glance, which means that although my sensing range has dropped a little (after I changed class) I can spot takers on sight, regardless of stealth abilities or distance (well, in truth, as long as I can see them clearly).

7/12/12

Fred times two summarises what's happened over the past couple of days. A couple of newbies have gotten into contact with us, except they missed the last interval. Well, one I had been in contact with, but they never proved themself; the other showed up on Takernet asking about how units worked. It turned out they live in Melbourne, so I got into contact with them.

Details aside, both don't have enough units to last until the next interval. One will die in two days, the other in five. They both don't know enough to blackmail us, so it's not as bad as with Fred. Although the one I talked to about Fred (without specifics) seemed to think blackmail was a terrible idea. She's a seventy year old great grandmother. Apparently her death/contract was through critical organ failure, and she's now healthier than she ever was for most of her life. Pretty weird. And she has five days to live.

I'm really, really hoping I get a phone call soon.

9/12/12

One of the… Doomed, I guess? Died today. He was a thirty-five year old tradie, who had been out and about on a mate's (second) buck's night during the interval before last. It's hard to resist the temptation to try and organise a hunt across the city instead of just sitting, and waiting,

11/12/12

The lovely old lady was killed today, I think. I've no idea who by, but I hope they don't feel good after murdering an old lady for only two units. There's not much else to say, really.

12/12/12

I got the phone call. More than a little late. My anger probably bled through into the conversation I had, more than a little bit, although it wasn't directed at the caller. It was the princess who rang me. The other two are dead; the other girl died when they tried to kill someone about a week ago. The princess killed the dude herself; draining all his units out of him while he slept. She felt it was a safer bet to group up with us, and removed the obstacle to doing so.

She's actually kind of terrifyingly cold. I think that the class she has (and I'm pretty sure she started as it, and that it won't change) did something very strange to her. Or she was a very broken person to begin with.

Either way, we need her. And she needs us, now (or another group to jump ship to). From what we discussed, she doesn't have a job and needs us to support her. She's so passive and out of it that it weirded me out majorly.

12/12/12 (later)

I've worked out the details. She's going to stay with Mitch at his new place (he was actually considering taking on a boarder) and he'll let her eat his food and so on. Mitch moves tomorrow, so it's pretty convenient overall.

Hannah and Elle are both going to university next year, so they've been putting together a plan to move closer to me and Mitch ('for university'). Abhi's conveniently close already, too. In a month and a bit we'll have an area that's more or less safe – as long as no-one gets the drop on us, we should be able to fight for long enough for help to arrive. It'll be good to go grocery shopping without feeling paranoid.

13/12/12

I helped Mitch get settled in today, along with Thea (the princess). In person, she seems less cold; more… Serene, and uninterested in what is going on around her. She thought out killing Randall (the man she was with) quite a bit before she murdered him, and implied that she only did it because she knew that he had no use for her anymore and might just decide to kill her at any time. Apparently the other woman was his girlfriend, and Thea was a mutual friend of theirs.

It looks like we don't really have to worry about her murdering us suddenly, unless she's low on units. The risk is that she might disappear if a better opportunity comes up, or things seem too risky. Overall, just another ball to keep track of as I try to keep us all alive.

With Thea, we're now pretty much set. We've decided to use her to share out the units from angel kills, but not to redistribute the units we currently have (honestly, we're all a little paranoid about her killing us – we have to let her at our most vulnerable point to give use units). Most importantly, however, we can use her to give units to any new takers we group up with, and make sure they make it to the next interval (and with a skill, rather than without).

14/12/12

I've been thinking about what to do with the roaming killers who pick off most of the new takers every month. Reaching out to them, trying to get them to stop, forgiving their (quite horrible) crimes is what I'd like to do, but… Being a taker and giving in to those urges messes with people. On Takernet, most are completely unrepentant about their killing sprees; or they're dead.

The other option – well, apart from ignoring them (which is not the path I wish to take) – is hunting them down and killing them. Or, possibly, imprisoning them and maybe giving them some kind of trial. Rehabilitate those we can. I'd love to do that, really, but it's horribly impractical. The police would probably get involved, too.

There are those who have gone too far, of course. Anyone with the psychopath class, for one, almost certainly deserves death. I think there are a few new psychopaths in Melbourne (there are a bunch of posts where people are discussing their new abilities (or, as the case is with psychopaths, ability to use multiple abilities)). None that are able to fill the shoes of those that have died, however.

Daniel has been oddly quiet, now that I think about it. He's still alive – I've been keeping tabs on his Facebook – but he hasn't tried to come after us, or gloated about a kill. He has been killing, though. His photos on Facebook – the dude is, honestly, a bit of a camwhore – show him with an increasing number of units.

Actually, the lack of encounters, and decreasing number of Melbourne posts from the second-tier sort of takers might mean that he's… I don't know. He's getting more powerful, killing off everyone except us (luck or design?) which leads to…

Hell, I have no idea. If he tries to fight all of us at once, he'll probably kill us all with ease. But it might be his idea of fun.

My paranoia's in overdrive right now, fuck.

16/12/12

Well, I know what Daniel's been up to. He's moving to Japan, right to the centre of the vastly heavier taker activity there. He was strengthening himself up in preparation for leaving.

And get this: he said he knew where most of us lived (and proved it). He's got the idea into his head, though, that for the sake of Aussie pride he reckons we should inherit 'control of Melbourne' after he leaves for 'the big leagues'. I, uh, thanked him.

More discussion led to him divulging that he has always felt like the 'cleaner' of Melbourne, cleaning up the mess all the takers were making. Fighting each other aimlessly, chaotically. So he was the 'certainty', death. He feels that what I've been doing – organising, working with other takers, taking on angels as a group is 'clean' though. Because we're like a guild, an organisation. 'Angel Killing Co.', he said. When I asked him why he murdered the person I was going to go meet, right before I got to them, he said I wasn't so organised back then.

I've known that, as a psychopath, he was probably actually insane in some manner. And it's turned out to be to our advantage, rather strongly. Which has, in turn, just made me more paranoid. He doesn't leave until Monday, and I think I'm honestly going to be counting the hours until his flight. We're all staying in the same place (Mitch's house) until he's gone.

18/12/12

Daniel's flight left this morning. Last night, he posted the address we were all at up on Takernet, and invited all the bloody killers in Melbourne to come take a crack at us. 'Fight for the crown of Melbourne!' he called it.

Here's the entire post he made, actually:

Topic: Fight for the crown of Melbourne!

Text:

The KING of Melbourne is leaving, so now all you fucks get to duke it out for my crown! Top psychopath could be yours!

But there's one big threat to your killing ways. It's the Angel Killing Company! You've seen them slowly come together for the past few months, and they've been getting stronger and happily obtaining everything they need! (Did I help them? You will NEVER know!)

So what are a bunch of killers to do? Well, I happen to know that they're all currently at the apartment of one of their members! The one whose address they didn't think I had! So all you guys have to do is head there, kill them all, kill each other, and claim the crown!

Sound simple? Here's the address: (removed)

Happy hunting!

He stuck a picture of Mitch's home's window (with a couple of us visible, although not well) at the end of the post. We had a discussion after I found the post and brought it to everyone's attention.

"We should fight them as they come, if anyone does come," said Hannah, "There'll probably be someone watching already, so if we leave, they'll just follow us."

There were some nods of assent. "Daniel will probably post all our addresses if we just leave," I said. "It's probably better that we fight now anyway; although there will definitely be those who come after us later."

"Do you sense that?" said Thea. "I feel a – no, several – takers making their way towards us. They don't seem to be together."

"Already?" said Abhi.

"Yes," said Thea. "They do not seem to be together, or know of each other's presence."

"The post was made half an hour ago," I said. "I probably should have expected something like this and kept an eye on Takernet."

"Cut the guilt crap and focus on this," said Elle.

"It's not hard to plan, we wait and take them one by one as a group," I said. "We can't engage in dialog, because that will just result in a big 'king of the hill' battle. Which would make Daniel's fucking day. If someone talks to us, we chat with them and keep an eye on them even if they seem friendly. Probably not going to happen, though."

The approaching takers stopped about then – they had begun to sense each other. Some of them started moving towards each other, and one began moving quickly towards us. The one running for us was relatively slow and weak; the rest were a mix of strengths. Thea muttered that she felt more arriving a couple of times (I have my suspicions that Daniel directly contacted many of the takers in Melbourne – he has told me in the past that there were many he found some information about, but not enough to track down).

"I think they're agreeing to work together," I said. Everyone else had felt it too – the takers who had grouped together hadn't killed each other yet; and they were even waiting for more to approach them.

"God, I hope not," said Hannah.

The taker who was running straight for the house bolted up the steps and politely knocked on the door. "You have to get out of here!" he yelled, "The psychopath posted your location on Takernet!"

We'd all clustered around the door as he approached. "We know," I called out in response. I had sight of him through a window, and used my power to figure out his abilities. He had ten points and the beginner healing skill; so I said to let him in.

"You'll be safer with us instead of trying to leave, get in here," I said, adding "He's a beginner" to those inside. We remained on edge as we let him in, but he wasn't using a high level deception skill (even if he had such a skill, it would have been suicide for him to come in). Or he was/is. Either way, it didn't backfire.

Nothing much happened for a couple of hours. More takers showed up and joined with the group that had gathered. I received a few phone messages from those I was in contact with (newbies I'd been sizing up, plus a couple of others) and craploads of emails/warnings over the forum. After a short discussion, I decided to ask those on 'our' side, more or less, to come.

A handful of takers showed up – a couple of brave newbies and an angel hunting pair (who drove around nearby a bit to ensure that the whole thing wasn't a trap).

The newbies (I had Thea give each enough soul points to bring them into their classes and give them each abilities):

Jim Hutchinson – The brave soul who ran up to warn us. His class was 'Shieldbearer', his weapon a long-handled rake (something like a gardening rake, but the claws were huge, sharp, and metallic). His ability allowed him to summon shields (which could be shared around, although they broke apart after a while).

Becca Pent – Her class was 'Kindred'. Her weapon was – of all things – a boomerang. She didn't know how to throw it properly. Her ability seemed to involve anticipating what we (her allies) were about to do, and had no unit cost.

Wei Vo – His class was 'Warrior', and his weapons a short sword and dagger. He gained the fast movement ability that a lot of takers seem to have.

The angel hunters were Adrian and Nelly Newman. Adrian was a knight with abilities similar to Hannah's (although not as advanced), with his weapon being a large club. Nelly had a mace and was a 'warrior', with skills similar to those Mitch had. Each had around three hundred units.

Our (fighting) number had doubled, but the assembled killers and others had swelled in number to sixteen. They started advancing on us; I managed to get a good look at them after they turned into the street. The strongest amongst them had six hundred and forty units, the weakest only twenty-five. The rest were spread between the two extremes, mostly between two and three hundred.

They clustered outside of Mitch's house. "Come out and fight us!" one said, grinning. "You're only going to die!"

They cackled at that. I spoke up in response, "You'd all prefer that we kill each other endlessly, instead of working together? We have all the skills we need to work together and effectively kill enough angels for all of us to survive. The killing can stop."

A few of those gathered laughed, although almost half looked guilty or regretful after I spoke up. I passed on a plan at this point; telling Wei and Elle which of our opponents had fast movement abilities. They had clustered up in one bunch – likely due to some sense of kinship.

"If any of you want to stop killing, now is the time to walk away," I said.

One of those gathered – an elderly man with cruelty deeply etched into his features – said, "Let's just fuckin' kill 'em!"

Elle and Wei took that as the go signal. Wei held onto Elle and dragged her into the bundle of speed powered takers, then dropped her and zipped out the far side. Elle span.

She got five of them as the rest of us charged out; two managed to pull out (one was without the speed power – they were only clipped by Elle's scythe). The details of the battle are pretty hazy – I was focused on trying to hold off four opponents at once (two with nigh impenetrable shielding abilities). I suspect they were trying to kill me and cut the head of the snake. I managed to disable one, and the two with shielding powers were eliminated when Wei dropped Elle in between them. I never want to have that much blood on me ever again.

I missed most of the battle because of that. The 'core' group – those of us who had been training – survived, although Hannah and Mitch got roughed up a bit and Abhi was disabled (luckily not harmed enough to consume all his units while regenerating). Jim and both of the Newmans were killed – the Newmans by some kind of lightning ability one of the attackers had. Hannah managed to dive in with her spear (her shield ability was negating the blasts) to take the lightning ability user out. The Newmans probably would've been okay, but opportunistic bastards started to drain them after they were blasted.

We gained a lot of units in the slaughter. A couple of those disabled surrendered; I think we can trust one of them, but the other two worry me. Thea distributed the units amongst us all.

I made a post on Takernet stating that we'd managed to win, and that Melbourne was now under the jurisdiction of our group. We settled on calling ourselves "Melbourne Takers", as well.

I'm having trouble writing this. Sixteen people died tonight and I'm pretty responsible for it. But hopefully that's the end of it. We can induct new takers, try and keep the number of souls taken down, and wipe out enough angels to keep us all alive indefinitely.

… I feel like noting down something Elle said. "Immortality sounds pretty good."

25/12/12

It's been a week since the shit hit the fan. And it's Christmas. Most of today I spent with family, forgetting all about takers and Takernet and the fact that I'm in charge of the only significant group in Melbourne.

A few killers – those who didn't come to the fight – remain and have refused to join us. The rest, including some 'repentant' killers have joined up with us. We've found another scout, as well – a newbie we picked up. There are about twenty-five of us now; most of the Takers in Melbourne. All of the newbies who found Takernet have joined up with us – our 'team shot' of all out weapons was good proof that we're a large group working together.

Plans for the next interval (in a couple of days) have been drawn up. We're going to cover the entire CBD initially, and then start taking down targets in a couple of teams. It should go well – training has been going great.

We caught and executed a killer yesterday. I, kind of didn't want to take this road; but the consensus was that unrepentant killers couldn't be trusted and any future killers of takers in Melbourne would be killed in turn. It's horrible, but it has to be done.

I'm not sure there's much else to say. I'm – well, I'm done here, with this journal. It's nearly full anyway, but… I'm hoping that from now on, life settles down; as much as it can when you're a taker. I've succeeded at what I hoped to do – and not only that, we are THE group in Melbourne. Anything that happens from here on out would probably be more or less a simple log – some takers joined, some takers died, some takers have changed class.

I never mentioned it, but I started this journal so that if I died it would hopefully let someone else know what I tried, what I learned, what I hoped to do. I've succeeded, so no-one's ever going to read it, but… I just want to say that despite the horrible things that I did, and the horrible things that happened, it has all worked out.

I'm going to be okay, and if you're a taker in Melbourne, so are you.


End file.
